South African ministers on Thursday denied that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was deliberately ignoring the main opposition party in Zimbabwe — the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the ruling ANC had met MDC leaders — including party leader Morgan Tsvangirai — even without prior appointment when they happened to be in South Africa for other reasons.
He was responding to questions about MDC complaints that the party — which came in just a handful of seats short of winning the national elections in 2001 — was ignored during regular visits to Zimbabwe by South African ministers and ANC officials.
Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad denied there was a deliberate policy to sideline the MDC and said that South Africa viewed it as important that all parties in Zimbabwe found a solution to the humanitarian, political and economic problems — which he referred to as a crisis — of that country.
But he warned that the MDC should not become a “fight back” opposition — referring to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) slogan in the last national election. He said simple party-politicking was not the answer in Zimbabwe.
Asked if he regarded Zanu-PF as a party which believed in human rights and was still progressive — as it was described by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma at the ANC conference in Stellenbosch in December — he said he did not know what progressive meant.
He described Zanu-PF as a “sister party” to the ANC and that was why Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament, had been invited to speak at the conference.
He, however, dodged a question about whether the action to invite Zanu-PF only to the conference had marginalised South Africa’s attempts to act as an impartial mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis. – I-Net Bridge